"What did you do? Make them stop!" Esme demanded, her golden eyes ablaze with malice.
Yet, instead of answering, Terran simply gestured toward the glowing knife that rested comfortably where his heart should have been beating. The organs and flesh that normally made up his chest burned to cinders, leaving a gaping hole.
His expression spoke a thousand words. However, if they had to be reduced to a single sentence, they would ask," do you know how rude it is to demand answers from a man while stabbing him with your holy blade?"
It was not difficult for Esme to get the hint, understanding the boy's expression completely. Sourly, she dissipated her light blade. "I let you go. Now do something to stop them!"
Unfortunately for Esme, Terran was just as confused as her right now. Although he had known animals acted strange around him, he had no idea why or if he could even get them to simmer down. That being said, it was advantageous if they kept up whatever they were doing. So, even if he did know, he would never stop them.
It hadn't even been 10 seconds since the banging started when a crashing sound was heard. While the other animals continued to pointlessly bang on their windows, a large crack had actually splintered across the wall holding back the elephants.
With Bull's strength, Terran had roughly the strength of 3 fully grown adults. Still, this strength did not measure up to even a single elephant.
Elephants were usually quite docile and would never charge at the glass. For that reason, the durability of the glass was nothing over the top. However, it could at least withhold their strength. Normally that is. The enclosure did not account for all 10 elephants relentlessly bombarding the glass without rest.
"Why aren't you making them—" Esme continued to scream like someone clinically insane until the first cracks formed, and her words got caught in her mouth.
At first, Terran believed her last straw had just been snapped, but a second later, she spat out a mouthful of blood, dismissing any thoughts that her pain was purely mental.
Searching for an answer, Terran's mind spun. "Does she take damage when parts of the ark are destroyed?" He questioned what he had just witnessed. Yet, it was the only thing that made sense. Unless she had not fully healed internally from his flesh wound.
Hoping to find out, Terran scanned the room for something a tad bit more fragile than the elephant enclosure. As the room was filled with these things, it only took an instant for Terran to spot a cage holding some type of rodent. Without hesitation, he dashed over and smashed through with his fist. The glass was nowhere near as thick, and his hand passed through without resistance.
Still transfixed on the blood she had coughed up, Esme started coughing again. Sadly, there was no blood from what Terran could see this time.
With this observation, he quickly came to a realization. "I get it, the elephant enclosure was much bigger, so obviously it would do more damage."
Meanwhile, the elephants had stampeded out of their cage and were beelining straight toward Esme. The look in their eyes was that of a bull that had just seen red for the first time.
Watching this, Terran smiled, conjuring two bone knives and throwing them at Esme.
Still rattled from the surprise damage, Esme was slow to react and was forced to dive to the side.
Unfortunately for her, this was exactly what Terran wanted. With her body laid flat on the ground, the elephants were upon her in seconds. Their feet, which carried over ten thousand pounds of force, trampled over Esme.
Her angelic body was enough to keep her innards from turning into soup, but it was not enough to protect her bones from breaking.
With Esme down for the count, Terran walked up to the largest elephant.
"Excuse me Mr. Elephant."
*Buuuuuuuuup* The elephant trumpeted angrily.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Elephant."
*Buuuuup* *Buuuuup* The elephant let out two short toots while nodding its head.
"Do you think you could help me free all your friends? I'm sure none of them want to live with this mean old lady."
*Buuuuup* *Buuuuup*
"That's great to hear!"
With that, Terran and the elephants got to shattering all the enclosures. The more they shattered, the more golden blood Esme coughed up. So much so that Esme was now lying in a pool of her own blood. Steam constantly rose from her body, but clearly, her healing was not enough to keep up with the damage.
The more freed animals, the more animals that joined the jailbreak. Very few animals had the strength to break cages. However, those who didn't still offered a helping hand, either by biting and scratching the fallen angel or by looking for other ways to free their cellmates.
Terran was positive Esme's healing would only last for so long. However, compared to all of the damage she was taking, he doubted whether him stabbing her with his pitiful bones would do anything to help.
Knowing this, Terran instead started wandering the Ark, breaking the cages that he could as he went.
"Oh, what's this?" On his exploration, Terran had just come across a particularly odd enclosure. It was odd that instead of trees, rocks, and grass, it instead had a bed, dresser, and television.
Unaware of the chaos outside, slept a young girl in the massive bed that was far too large for her small body.
"Well, Esme did talk about collecting humans as well."
Tapping on the glass, Terran attempted to get her attention. However, it seemed the glass was highly soundproof, an obvious assumption when considering the thundering crashes of shattering glass occurring all around outside.
"Hey, Dumbo!" Terran called out to one of the Elephantine creatures Esme had introduced.
*Buuuuuuuuuuuup*
"Oh, you don't like the name that chicken gave you?"
*Buuuup* *Buuuuup*
"Too bad, if she got one thing right it was definitely your name."
*Buuuuuuuuuuup*
"Stop complaining and just break down this stupid wall."
*Buuuuuuuup*
Dumbo continued to complain yet still immediately got started on the wall. Thankfully, the glass was not as thick as the elephant enclosure, so it all came crashing down after a few good stomps.
Amazingly, even after the enclosure broke, the girl in the bed kept sleeping.
Walking up to the bed, Terran flicked her forehead.
"Shit, I forgot I still had Bull's Strength activated!" Terran cursed out loud, worried he had given her a concussion.
However, concussion or not, it seemed the flick was not enough to do the job.
"Is she dead?" Terran questioned his vision as he could still see her chest faintly moving up and down.
After another second of deliberation, Terran decided she was not his problem. If she didn't want to wake up, he would just leave her be.
However, as he was leaving, something caught his eye. It was a flash of silver hanging halfway out of the sheets. It was something weird.
He pulled back the sheets and noticed two silver cuffs resting tightly around her wrists. They were not connected to anything, almost as if they were fashion accessories, yet this was unlikely because of how bulky and ugly they were.
Terran took one more look before heading out of the room. While he was sure there was more to those odd cuffs, he could see that the Arc was significantly damaged, and it was time he headed back to Esme to finish the job.
The steam surrounding Esme had significantly faded. It was clear her mana or whatever else made her tic was running low.
Terran knelt down next to her body. "Now, what's the best way to finish off a chicken?"
Growing a new knife, Terran gritted his teeth and plunged it into her neck. Blood spurted like a fountain, dying his skin along with the surroundings a glistening gold. Then, he cut and cut emotionlessly until her head rolled away from her body.
Terran took no pleasure in his actions, nor did he feel any remorse.
With the deed done, he waited for the ding from the system, notifying him that his quest was complete, but none came, causing him to let out a deep sigh.
"This is why I gave her some time to simmer in the damage from the destruction of the arc, but it seems even after being weakened, mortal weapons cannot claim her life."
It was faint but definitely present; a small stream of smoke was snaking out from the head and reaching out to the body. Worst of all, it was no longer thinning out, even as more cages were being shattered.
Bending over, Terran picked up Esme's head and walked away from the body. "No-no-no. No regeneration for naughty chickens." He repeated as he paced around the Arc, bending his mind over backward to think of a solution.
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Authors Note: My Gaia System is going on pause until the results of WPC #290 are announced, which I believe will be 3 weeks from now.